Editorial Commentary

End the Work-Visa Lottery

Judge prospective immigrants by their potential productivity

APRIL FOOL'S DAY FELL ON A SUNDAY this year, so the U.S. government played its stupid little joke on the high-tech industry on April 2 instead. That was the first day that applicants could file for the 65,000 H-1B visas that admit foreigners to work in the U.S. as engineers, programmers or other skilled workers. By that afternoon, more than 150,000 people had filed. By Tuesday afternoon, the golden gates were closed.

The 150,000 who applied on April 2 and the so-far-uncounted thousands whose applications were received on...